Vox Clamantis: Hassan

I find it exhausting and honestly quite condescending that we are still having the “should we abolish the Greek system” conversation. There was a debate last spring. It was made clear that the negative psychological, physical and emotional impact of Greek culture (from binge drinking, to exclusion, to rampant sexual assault) did not and could not outweigh the benefits of investing in an inclusive campus culture.

What we have now is not working and will never work. Greek houses are ubiquitous. They take up too much space, they cost so much to participate in and students feel pressured to participate in order to avoid social and professional alienation. We know this. The question we need to be asking at this point is what now? Are we brave enough to imagine a campus without Greeks? Can we buy the houses back and turn them into coed living learning spaces? Can we tear them down and build more dorms?

We know alumni donations will go down once we abolish the Greek system. But within a few years, the donations will come back up. It’s not that serious. What is serious, however, is how much respect and veneration and deliberation we are giving one group’s recreational activities and “right” to an exclusive social spaces over other students’ bodily safety.